The Role of Gender and School Type in Influencing Performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education Examination: Research Findings from Public Secondary Schools in Kakamega County, Kenya.

Abstract

Performance in national examinations is a subject that elicits a lot of emotion and concern among education stakeholders, be they students, parents, teachers, educational administrators or political leaders. This is because performance in the said examinations is the sole criterion used to allocate opportunities for further training and employment. Many studies have been done to explore the factors that influence performance in examinations in Kenya and the world over. This study sought to investigate the relationship between students’ gender and school type (whether boys’, girls’ or mixed) schools and performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (K.C.S.E.) examination. The study also attempted to find out whether there are differences in performance in K.C.S.E examination between students of different gender and school type. Three different samples were selected from six public secondary schools in Kakamega County. These were 277 form four students, forty-one form four subject teachers and six careers guidance and counselling masters. Three questionnaires were used in data collection for the different samples selected. The data were then analysed by computer using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Programme. Three statistical techniques were used to test the hypotheses formulated for this study. These were the Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient which was used to test for relationships between variables; the Analysis of Variance was used to test for differences between variables and the Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis to test the individual and cumulative effect of Independent Variables on the Dependent Variable. The research design was an ex post facto one. The findings revealed that students’ gender and school type were significantly related to performance in K.C.S.E examination.  Statistically significant differences in performance in K.C.S.E examination were discerned between gender and school type. These findings formed the basis for the recommendations that the Ministry of Education should encourage single-sex schools and strengthen career guidance and counselling and mentorship programmes in secondary schools to motivate learners, as a matter of policy.

Key Words: Gender, school-type, performance, equity.